Degree as minimum teaching qualification

The minister said the impending policy change was part of the government’s effort to improve the standard of education in the country. Malam Ibrahim was speaking when he received Finland ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Pirjo Suomela-Chowdhury, who had made an earlier disclosure that all the teachers in his country had a minimum of master’s degree, […]

The minister said the impending policy change was part of the government’s effort to improve the standard of education in the country. Malam Ibrahim was speaking when he received Finland ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Pirjo Suomela-Chowdhury, who had made an earlier disclosure that all the teachers in his country had a minimum of master’s degree, because, he said, “teaching is a highly competitive profession due to huge interest by too many qualified people.”
The minister said the federal government would explore all measures to restore the respect, dignity and status of teachers in the country, adding that the target was to make first degree as minimum teaching qualification. He said the minimum teaching qualification in Nigerian schools since 1980 had been the National Certificate in Education (NCE).
Malam Ibrahim recalled that Nigeria had dispensed with the practice in the past when the situation was so dire that primary school leavers were engaged in teaching.  “The level was raised to teacher’s Grade III in the early 1960s and later on in the early ’70s, it was a minimum of Grade II, this was later phased out in the early ’80s to minimum of NCE,” he noted. “Gradually we will get there. We hope that a day will come when all our schools, including pre-primary, will be handled by university graduates,” he said.
For decades education planners and administrators had expressed concern regarding the falling standard of pedagogy in schools, largely blamed for the concomitant poor educational attainment of pupils in comparison with the rest of the world. Various measures, including many changes to school calendars and curricula, have been taken by the government to stem the decline.  Still, there is much more to be done if Malam Ibrahim’s projection is to be feasible in the nearest future. It is illogical, however, to assert that having a degree would confer on its holder the teaching skills that are required in the lower rungs of the educational ladder to turn out excellent students.
Experience has shown that the policy in some states of phasing out the Grade II certificate of teacher training colleges was premature, because their curricula were specially designed to produce teachers that are skilled for primary school level and the Nigerian Certificate of Education (NCE) of colleges of education were for teachers equipped by their training to handle secondary schools.
The other problem is that the new policy would continue the contentious emphasis on paper qualification that is often not a reliable measure of the holder’s aptitude and skills.  The most likely way out is that the policy should place emphasis on producing well-trained teachers.
Government’s policy of stressing paper qualification has had the effect of downgrading the usefulness of
NCE; prospective entrants to tertiary education now prefer a degree, choking the university system as a result.
Addressing the enduring problem of standard in education would require the government to revisit the entire teaching system, especially at the primary school level.  Whatever minimum teaching qualification the government sets should be accompanied by revamped teacher training programmes that are suitable to the different levels of the education system.
The status of teachers must also be enhanced with spruced up welfare and compensation packages sufficient to attract and retain people in the profession.  This should be a priority to encourage brilliant young people to take up the teaching profession.